Savage Creatures

"Oh, no! The rancor!"
     –Threepio

Savage Spirits, the Seeker sourcebook for the Star Wars®: Force and Destiny™ roleplaying game, is now available at retailers throughout the United States and online via our webstore. If you haven't yet picked up your copy, be sure to do so today!

Within its 96 fully illustrated pages, Savage Spirits introduces new Seeker specializations and two signature abilities that ensure your Seeker can find everything he or she needs to survive in even the most hostile environments. That's a good thing because the book also provides Game Masters everything they need to run adventures and campaigns that make good use of the Star Wars galaxy's most inhospitable climates.

You'll find advice for running wilderness encounters, along with a chart for spending your Advantage, Threat, Triumph, and Despair during those encounters. The short adventure in Savage Spirits can be easily adapted for use in nearly any Force and Destiny campaign, and you'll even find the outlines for three entire campaigns that focus on the sort of travel and extended hunts at which Seekers excel. Perhaps most importantly, though, you'll also find nearly three-dozen different creatures with which you can populate your encounters.

Creatures in the Star Wars Galaxy

To a great extent, our love of Star Wars owes to the ways that it balances the instantly recognizable with the completely alien. It thrills us with powerfully iconic tales of good versus evil. We recognize ourselves in its heroes, in their doubts, their aspirations, and their love of others. And at the same time, it takes us to distant galaxies, throws us into dimly lit cantinas populated by myriad alien species, and sends starfighters screaming over our heads. Additionally, it ignites our sense of wonder with images of the strange creatures that live among the galaxy's many different worlds.

Who didn't feel a chill the first time they saw the dianoga's eye stalk pop up among the trash of the Death Star's trash compactor? What impressionable young viewer didn't want to ride a tauntaun after watching one run across the snowy wastes of Hoth? Who wasn't afraid of the wampa? Would we have seen Luke's encounter with Yoda under the same aura of mystery and magic if we hadn't first seen a pair of bog wings and a dragonsnake?

The galaxy's many different creatures keep us on our toes. They keep us from feeling that we understand all that we see. They remind us that although we may be embroiled in plots that impact the fate of whole worlds—maybe even multiple worlds—we are only a small part of a web of life that is much bigger than ourselves. Used correctly, creatures can do the same things in your Force and Destiny campaign. And, of course, they can provide new challenges.

As an example, the Jerethian clamberwolf is a powerful, heavily furred apex predator from the forests of Jereth VI. Its fierce, lupine muzzle and ripping talons can take down almost any prey, but it is even deadlier when encountered in its native forests. There, the clamberwolf's natural deftness at climbing places it atop the food chain. Moreover, clamberwolves are surprisingly intelligent for beasts, and packs of them are capable of cunning ambushes and tactics that can take down much larger prey.

Because the Jerethian clamberwolf is so intelligent and because it appears in the Seeker sourcebook, you might think it would make a good animal companion, and it could. However, the clamberwolf's natural aggression makes studying or training them too difficult for most. Accordingly, the clamberwolf might be a rewarding companion for an experienced Seeker, or you might look elsewhere in Savage Spirits for options for your Seeker's animal companion.

One potential alternative is the sure-footed hurghol, a reptilian climber whose many-jointed limbs allow it to move across almost any incline or surface. However, the species’ most unusual trait is not its deft climbing, but its diet—or arguably, its lack of one. As far as can be determined, hurghols do not need to eat at all in the commonly understood sense, instead drawing all the energy needed to survive from the Force itself. Stories have circulated through the galaxy of incredible feats of endurance by hurghols, such as falling down steep inclines and breaking legs, then climbing out unperturbed months later, after their limbs have healed.

Of course, given all the different creatures in Savage Spirits, there are plenty of different ways you may think to use them. Perhaps you may even use them outside of Force and Destiny, choosing instead to write one or more of them into an Edge of the Empire™ adventure centered around transporting dangerous cargo. Or you may add creatures like the vrblther to an Age of Rebellion™ adventure in such a way that clever characters may turn them against Imperial forces. The possibilities are limitless.

Go Wild

Whether you head into the galaxy's many wildernesses on the path of personal discovery or to hunt down an elusive rival, you'll find that Savage Spirits provides you everything you need to enjoy rich, fully conceived adventures and encounters. Visit some of the galaxy's strangest planets, brave its most challenging climates, and come face-to-face with some of its deadliest creatures. Savage Spirits is your key to all of the wonder, awe, surprise, and tension that come with journeys into the less traveled parts of the galaxy.

Savage Spirits is now available at United States retailers and online through our webstore!